Here's the problem: Certifications today vary greatly depending on which vendor is behind them. You can't say that someone holding an administrator-level certification from one vendor knows the same as someone holding a similar mark from another vendor, even though both of them are expected to be administering networks.

This is nothing new, obviously. But this disparity can be solved easily enough -- and doing so would be beneficial to both the market and those who are administering IT networks. Here's my five-step solution:

1. Establish a truly vendor-neutral IT oversight federation that focuses only on certification, not one that does certification while also trying to lobby and tend to other matters.
   
2. Have that oversight body define the tasks that an administrator needs to do. In other words, conduct a job task analysis (JTA) that isn't poisoned by marketing trends and specific feature-requirements from vendors. The tasks that a Linux administrator performs (adding users, configuring resources, backups, etc.) are the same tasks that a Microsoft administrator performs, and so on.
   
3. Create certification exams that ask questions only on issues related to the JTA, and for every operating system. When a candidate goes to take the exam, however, have them first signify which operating system they want to be tested on. every candidate should have to know what command-line utility is used to check IP configuration, for example, but the answer they choose will vary based on which operating system they want to be certified in.
   
4. Have the exams lead to two levels of certification: apprentice and journeyman. In other words, keep it simple and avoid as much confusion as possible.
   
5. Educate HR managers about the new certifications. Advertise in the journals they read and speak at the conferences they attend. Once they understand the concept and create the demand, candidates will begin to pursue this certification instead of the ones they're currently chasing.

While there's nothing revolutionary here, this model offers a solution to the lack of uniformity so prevalent in IT certification today.

The Evolution of Certification Books
Over the weekend, I started pondering one of those problems that have no single right answer. To paraphrase a bit, the problem was to name three people who are responsible for the certification market being what it is today.

Some of the visionaries I've talked about before -- Sallie Findlay and E. Clarke Porter -- fit the category, but what surprised me was that two names came to mind that I hadn't considered in a while: Drew Heywood and Ed Tittel.

In the early 1990s, Drew Heywood was working for New Riders Publishing, a small imprint known in the niche field of CAD publishing, when he began to oversee a series of books written for those wanting to become CNEs. (This was when the only certification from Novell was the CNE and other vendors hadn't yet seen the value in the market.) He called the books "training guides" because he didn't want to offend Novell by saying that everything you needed to know to pass the exams was available in the books. He took care to insinuate that the required material was in there, sure, but the early editions didn't come right out and broadcast it.

The books sold reasonably well -- and, in the process, Heywood proved that a market for "training guides" existed. Novell caught on and decided to publish its own books, calling them "study guides" and making very apparent what exams they were for. The certification book market was never the same.

Of course, once it became apparent that certification books would sell well, every publisher starting rushing them out. Essentially, they all published the same thing: a giant A-to-Z book on every topic you might need to know, from how to use the mouse to how to tweak the registry. The predominant thought was "the bigger, the better" -- that way, readers would know they were getting their money's worth.

Enter Ed Tittel. He argued that administrators were smart people and didn't need to know how to use the mouse in every book they bought; instead of a general A-to-Z book, they needed something that told them only what they didn't already know, like what knowledge vendors required for each specific exam.

Thus, the Exam Cram series was born, and it created a whole new way of looking at the market. When the publisher, Coriolis, went out of business around 2000, the Exam Cram name was purchased by Que Publishing, where the title lives on.

Demand for Technology Training/Education Expected To Increase
Microsoft recently posted the results of a March IDC forecast predicting that "demand for technology training and education programs will increase by 5.4 percent between 2007 and 2012." While 5.4 percent represents a global number, growth in the Americas is expected to be even higher, at 6.6 percent.

Microsoft used these findings as one of the foundations for the new Master-level training and certification programs that were unveiled at the recent Tech-Ed 2008 conference.

The Master-level certification will sit below the Architect and above the Professional and Technology series certifications.

CompTIA To Update Linux+
With the Security+ certification update well underway, CompTIA has now turned its attention to Linux+.

The first step in updating this exam/certification is a JTA; a three-day workshop for that purpose has been scheduled for July 28. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are now being recruited.

As an aside, CompTIA is also seeking Security+ SMEs to help determine the cut score for the updated exam. More information on this need can be found here.